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Tin tin

Hello - new to rc cars ( vintage wild one )

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Hello I'm new to the rc scene because of a friend at work gave me his vintage wild one to get working again. so I could use it with my son.

so I took my time cleaning the electrics up and testing before buying the battery for it and after 25 years of it being in a loft it set off fine 🙂

I've been doing my research and reading up on the history of the wild one as I've got a feeling I'm going to have to rebuild the gear box as it's making a clicking sound and it's a bit jolty and part of the casing is cracked plus some new wheels are needed.

so I'm looking at slowly rebuilding and upgrading drive gear and suspension 🙂

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Welcome Tin tin. That's a nice specimen you have there. The clicking sound is a common problem with these vehicles. You replace gears and you'll be hearing that again in a short time. The problem is a mixture of the spider gears' natural wear and the gearcase not being as stiff or solid as it should. This is problem is shared with other Tamiya vehicles like the ORV based cars (Frog, Blackfoot, etcetera). Now, a lil clicking is okay, but if it's too noisy you better check it, change the spider gears and add a lil Tamiy moly grease. That will keep your Wild One buggy in good shape. Have a good Sunday! :)

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Welcome.  

You've got a good friend.  All in all, It looks to be in good condition.  I see wires connected to the resistor block.  If you want to run it, getting an Electronic Speed Control (ESC) might be a good idea.  The Mechanical Speed Control (MSC) is a very old technology. (I keep the resistors where they are, though, just for looks)

I would also get bearings.  Bearings tend to make it accelerate faster, run longer, and the top speed goes up.  Cheapest I found are about $2 for 10.  They are not the greatest. I find one bad lube job out of 20 or so.  Even a bad apple loosens up with some plastic-safe machine oil (some of the ball-spacers are made out of plastic, so I can't use WD40).  I find them good enough for backyard bashing.  Below link is for 1150 bearings (5x11x4mm).  

https://www.ebay.com/itm/10pcs-685-5x11x4mm-Open-Miniature-Bearings-ball-Mini-Hand-Bearing-Spinner/162470235664?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Wild One also uses three of 850 bearings in the gearbox (5x8x2.5mm).  You can get ten for $1.  

https://www.ebay.com/itm/10pcs-MR85zz-5x8x2-5mm-Open-Miniature-Bearings-ball-Mini-Hand-Bearing-Spinner-/162470094633?hash=item25d3f8e729

If I remember correctly, I found it difficult to remove the play. The gearbox should hold down the differential without binding. I don't know if I had "Kyosho shim set" at the time.  

Sticky differential grease help, because they resist the grinding of teeth.  I just used "3Racing ultra viscosity diff oil" in Baja King, but those diffs are not as open as Wild One's.  The Limited Slip Differential (LSD) effect almost bind both wheels, which is great in 2WD buggies.  I hesitate to recommend it for Wild One, because I don't yet know if it would fling out.  If you don't have access to another sticky grease, try Molybdenum grease as mongoose1983 said, or Tamiya Anti-Wear (AW) grease.  I use AW grease on on-road cars, even though I have a couple of different types of sticky grease.  For off-roaders, AW grease isn't sticky enough. But a whole heck of lot better than regular ceramic grease.  

Gearboxes can be found from kit breakers on ebay.  You can look for "FAV" or "Wild One" or "Fast Attack" gearboxes.  As mongoose1983 said, I would replace bevel gears in the differential too.  Once those things start to click, the teeth don't get beefier, only thinner.  They are usually under $7 or so.  

Wild One is a good buggy.  I have a FAV but I always wanted Wild One.  

 

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Thanks for the welcome mongoose1983 and Juggular 🙂

The local model shop said about replacing the old esc and motor he said for about £50 but I was just trying to get it running on the cheap incase it didn't work. 

So just to check and was was looking at getting the bearings from ( the time tunnel ) with new wheel there's only 1 bearing per wheel and with the 3 in the gear box so only 7 bearings on the machine? 

Hears a picture list of bits I'm looking at getting. 

Front and rear metal arms with the ally upright, a motor heat transfer, diff gard, new suspension and I saw on another model solid adjustable stearing linkage which I thought was a good idea plus sort the gear box maybe do the frog mod or Thorp Diff if I had the money 😋

Is all of the I've said worth the time and effort? Plus this was the silicone Lube the shop recommended? 

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Thats a really tidy WildOne....with it being vintage it should be worth a decent amount, a re-re of the same car will be more robust if using with a littler one as its sure to get a prang or four.

My son wrecked my vintage Midnight Pumpkin, drove it into the corner of the garage......needs more parts to fix that its now worth!!!

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Thanks it has the odd scrape on it from use, sadly it did show it's age today and a front wheel cracked my son was really upset but I said I'll get it fixed so new wheels bearings and the ally uprights have been ordered to start the update rebuild. 

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Those Tamiya 8-hole 2WD fronts were always a bit fragile, in my experience, and will be even more brittle after 25 years sitting in the loft. A set of re-re rims should be esy enough to source, although if you prefer you could upgrade to Tamiya 2.2" rims and tyres all round from a modern model for a fairly reasonable amount. I just did the same for my Grasshopper 2 and they look great. There are two styles ('Astral Dish' and 'Star Dish'), they come in numerous colours and they will give you additional tyre options. You will need adaptors for the rear wheels as they use a different fitting (the 2.2" wheels use hex fittings rather than the four-hole fittings on the standard Wild One) but Tamiya make suitable adaptors for not much money.

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Thanks yalson options are always good 👍🏻 I've got the same on the way for the meantime, I will look at others for future spares for sure. 

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Those upgrade list you posted would really make a difference plus the full bearings and ESC mentioned by Juggular. Fortunately, aftermarket parts for RCs are now cheaper and easier to get compared to before. You can upgrade this kit little by little without actually noticing your cost. Once you and your son enhoy this, I'm pretty sure you'll get another kit to play, bash and race together.

 

Enjoy the re-build and bonding with your kid. :)

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Hi Nicadraus that was the answer I was hoping for I'll order the metal arms soon then start on ordering all the gear box parts as that bit will be jumping in the deep end to rebuild 😋

Thanks 🙂 

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1 hour ago, graemevw said:

Just remember silicone lubricants are for plastics, not metal!

 

OK thanks 🙂 

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If its for your diff, and the gears are metal in plastic, it should be ok. Just metal to metal silicone isnt great for.

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3 hours ago, graemevw said:

If its for your diff, and the gears are metal in plastic, it should be ok. Just metal to metal silicone isnt great for.

Yeah there metal in plastic I'll get proper stuff like what mongoose 1983 said when I start the rebuild 🙂

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Sorry Martin. My TC mailbox is full. Also, I haven't had a minute, lots to do here with work, the wife, and life you know :)

The Tamiya molybdenum grease isn't too expensive: https://www.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXGS04

The gearbox is not and will never be liquid tight. Tamiya is not even able to make shocks with such qualities! If I was you, I wouldn't use anything liquid on my cars -they're not made for that. Perhaps there are other brands that might do, but not the Tamiya we know and love. Kids at hobby stores these days don't have a clue about Tamiya cars, I would be careful with whatever they say to you at the hobby store.

What you need is the creamy Tamiya grease (the one that says gearbox) and a lil moly grease. I would strongly advice against using red grease from other brands as that stuff usually dries and make things more complicated in the long run. And also, the gears don't need much stuff in them. I have seen guys applying lots of grease when there is really no need. Watch your wallet buddy. Spend on what you really need, and don't throw away the cash that might help you get another Tamiya car ;)

Have a good weekend!

 

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No worries 🙂 hectic life's can be fun, 

I've got some on order 👍🏻 it's shocking how quick you can spend money on these cars :blink:thanks for the help and tips again 

Have a good weekend to :)

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Don't bother with metal suspension parts & knuckles, waste of $$. Plastic arms flex on impact & don't stay bent; you don't want to transfer the impact forces further up the chassis where repair bills escalate. Suspension bits aren't a fragile point on W1/FAV anyway, never broken one in 35yrs.

W1 already has oil shocks, no need to upgrade either.

 

Spend $$ on bearings & ESC. Plenty of decent ESCs for cheap like Quikrun 1060 or 1040, don't need anything special for running a 540.

Best stick with 540; changing to crazy power motor won't do weak gearbox any favours. 

Re-re uses dogbones not hexbones of original. New re-re parts can fit old chassis, but you'll need to buy the whole new lot as a whole... when that becomes kinda spendy, might as well just buy the whole kit for not much more.

 

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On 4/7/2019 at 11:47 AM, Tin tin said:

So just to check and was was looking at getting the bearings from ( the time tunnel ) with new wheel there's only 1 bearing per wheel and with the 3 in the gear box so only 7 bearings on the machine? 

There are 13 bearings in a re-re W/O , 10 x 1150's and 3 x 850's ,the vintage W/O had 12 bearings , 10 x 1150's and 2 x 850's and some shims to pack the diff , the later model uses the extra 850 to eliminate the shimming out ,  best to buy rubber shielded type for outside use , you can use metal shielded inside the gearbox .

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Hi willyChang

Thanks for the information I won't worry about the metal arms then, I was do a read up on the motors and I'm happy to keep the standard motor from all the post I've seen about the gearbox being temperamental. 

I'll read up on reconditioning the standard shocks then 👍🏻

I will get a esc at some point then when I've got the exact money 🙂

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1 hour ago, KEV THE REV said:

There are 13 bearings in a re-re W/O , 10 x 1150's and 3 x 850's ,the vintage W/O had 12 bearings , 10 x 1150's and 2 x 850's and some shims to pack the diff , the later model uses the extra 850 to eliminate the shimming out ,  best to buy rubber shielded type for outside use , you can use metal shielded inside the gearbox .

Ah that makes sense 👍🏻 

The kit turned up the over day I'm just waiting for all the other bits to turn up now. 

My son will have fun rebuild it with me :lol:

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2 hours ago, Tin tin said:

I'll read up on reconditioning the standard shocks then 👍🏻

The rear shocks are easy to recondition with an overhaul kit . When you reassemble them fit an approx 3mm thick washer / spacer to the bottom of the damper shafts underneath the damper pistons before you put the internals back in . This will limit the extended length which will help with the rear drive shafts , as the rear arms used to drop too far on full extent and caused excessive premature wear to the hex shaped shafts

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13 hours ago, KEV THE REV said:
8 hours ago, KEV THE REV said:

The rear shocks are easy to recondition with an overhaul kit . When you reassemble them fit an approx 3mm thick washer / spacer to the bottom of the damper shafts underneath the damper pistons before you put the internals back in . This will limit the extended length which will help with the rear drive shafts , as the rear arms used to drop too far on full extent and caused excessive premature wear to the hex shaped shafts

Thanks for the modification up date it mite be a while until I do the suspension I'll get my head around rebuilding the gear box and getting the other bits fitted 🙂, which oil is best as I've read about different colours for soft or hard set up. 

 

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